


Introductions

by ARandomFactoid



Series: We Don't Need A Hero [1]
Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Biotics, Engineers, First Meetings, M/M, Spacer (Mass Effect), War Hero (Mass Effect)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-11
Updated: 2014-05-11
Packaged: 2018-01-24 07:12:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1596146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ARandomFactoid/pseuds/ARandomFactoid
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pre-ME1, Noah Shepard getting the job and his first steps onto the SR-1</p>
            </blockquote>





	Introductions

**Author's Note:**

> Let's call this a one-shot, for now.

The worst thing about being famous, as Noah Shepard would have told anyone who asked - if anyone would ask - is how stupid it makes him feel.  It isn’t a cognitive deficiency, more a frustrating lack of knowledge, ignorance of how to relate to anyone about his notoriety, as he insists on calling it.  Everyone he meets already know who he is, his life story, and his greatest accomplishments while he is still trying to attach the new name to the new face.  It turns out to be quite difficult to learn about new people and places when he is constantly reciting his own story.  It crowds everything else out. He’s become so boring to his own hearing it remains a surprise that others enjoy hearing him recite it, despite already knowing the story themselves.

His fame also created a Noah Shepard that exists outside of himself - he is discussed and considered, and he has no knowledge of it.  Before Elysium he existed in Alliance data banks and as log-in data of a few extranet sites, he had a measure of control, and it was a mere representation: serial number, rank, next of kin, bloodtype, eligibility for promotion; a name on a crew manifest or survivors list his mother can track from another far away Alliance ship; a username, password, a cache tracking his taste in vids and books.  Now, because 22 year old Noah Shepard wanted to spend as much of his shore leave in a bar on an actual planet, and as little of it in transport shuttles, he is 29 and sometimes thinks he exists as more as an idea than as a person.  He is a name that raise recruitment numbers, boost fundraising for widows and families - he only has to stand there.  His mother could, if she chose, follow his life on the civilian extranet.  It’s the knowledge of this other Noah, an existential version of himself, that makes him feel stupid, because he doesn’t really know what this other Noah is up to.

Feeling stupid is why it takes him three weeks to accept the XO post on the Normandy SR-1.  It’s why he’s still looking at the pros and cons list he made on his omni-tool on the transport to the ship after Anderson had goaded him into accepting.  

Anderson himself is a pro on the list.  Noah had served under him going back to N7 training, before Elysium.  The promotion is a pro as well- he had been loathe to take new postings that would separate him from everyone he knew, or knew him before he became a  War Hero.  He wasn’t lagging behind, but he had been getting the hint that his lack of ambition was starting to show, and he’d received several reminders that big breaks don’t happen to everyone, or very often.  The Normandy was a prototype frigate, not a standard issue cruiser, a cross-species collaboration, and the implied promise of something more than the mundane honor and lip-service existence he was beginning to see as the fate of most Alliance officers.  It was another veneer of symbolism he wasn't quite ready to add to the ones he already had.

It was a vid-com ambush by Anderson that got him in the end.  The com was scheduled thru his now former captain, so Noah had no choice but to go.  Looking back, the discussion was shockingly brief.

“Lieutenant Shepard - how are you?” Anderson stood, a holographic representation without context, as if he were in the room and not light-years away.

“Good Sir - and you?” Shepard answered with a perfunctory salute.

“Well enough, Lieutenant.  Heard from your mother lately?”

“She’s well, last I heard, been a few weeks since our last message.’

“Good, good… About that XO post, the crew is starting to arrive and settle in, I have a few marines very eager to get to work.”

“Captain - Sir, it’s an honor to be-”

“We’re waiting on you, Shepard.”

“When’s my deadline?”

“We put out tomorrow.  My yeoman has scheduled your transport to a convenient rendezvous.  I’ll finalize the paperwork as soon as were thru here.”

“Captain - I -”

“Congratulations, Commander Shepard.  Your transport leaves in two days, my yeoman will forward the itinerary.  Have a pleasant evening.”

Shepard had stared at the blank spot on the wall, where Anderson’s image had been, for full minute before a ping and a flash from his omni tool got his attention.  Pulling up his screen, he minimized the pros and cons list and found the travel itinerary.

It all falls together so smoothly.  

Anderson meets Shepard in the airlock and brings him directly into the Normandy’s bridge where he introduces the two men at the helm.  The first, who’s out of his seat to attention is Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko.  Shepard already knows Alenko is his direct subordinate, the man who’s been doing his job while Noah waffled, and who himself is a noted biotic talent (access to service records a new perk Noah devoured when distracting himself from his pros and cons list on the transport).  The Lieutenant seems genuinely glad Commander Shepard has arrived, warmly accepting Noah’s offered handshake, even if he doesn’t say anything more that “Sir”.

Shepard also knows the second man, who is still seated,  is Flight Lieutenant Jeff Moreau. He isn’t sure why Anderson hasn’t balked at Moreau’s informality, or why Anderson introduces him simply as ‘Joker’. It’s Anderson ship, however, and Noah decides not think on it further before he has more intel.  Anderson begins to address the three of them, but a bustling crewman approaches from what Shepard assumes is from the CIC further inside the ship.  The, Ensign, Shepard discerns, approaches the Captain and speaks to him directly in a whisper the others can’t hear.  No one else reacts, so Noah doesn’t, and the Captain excuses himself once the Ensign has completed her task and scurried off, leaving Shepard with Alekno for the tour and introductions.

“So Commander,” Joker drawled as soon as the Captain was out of earshot.  “You save a whole colony and they let you boss the other ground pounders around?  Or do you just have a wild administrative streak?”

Noah had to snort at that, he physically could not stop himself.  Alenko stiffened ram-rod straight, so Noah waved him off to be at ease, and he relaxed to a parade rest, only just.  Noah flicked his gaze between the Joker and Alenko, sizing up his audience.  He only just met them, and he was their superior officer, but he decided to take the chance.  He leaned forward, resting an elbow on the back of Joker’s flight chair, “Or maybe I was in search of pretty fly-boys… Oh well.”  

Joker shot Shepard a grin before settling back in the chair, “I’ll ask your opinion again after you’ve seen me do my thing with this baby” he quipped, but petting his console in a way that belied his sarcasm.  “Good to meet you, Sir.”

“Likewise Joker.”  Shepard replied to the back of Joker’s head.  Turning back to Alenko, who was still at parade rest, flicking his gaze between the Pilot and the XO, looking completely unsure of how to handle the situation, Shepard waved him towards the CIC with a tilt of the head.  Alenko nodded and led Shepard further into the ship.

“Sorry about that, sir -” Kaidan began, before Shepard cut him off with a chuckle.

“Why are you sorry?” Shepard asked.  He kept it rhetorical by not giving the Lieutenant a chance to answer.  “Anderson knows how I ship out, and I’m somewhat familiar with how he runs his command.  I’m guessing Joker has the skills to back up his mouth - that all of you, us, do.  I can handle a ‘witty’ pilot.”

Alenko turned around, and continued to lead Shepard thru the CIC, walking backwards, stepping around power conduits and flight chairs, following the curve of the deck, knowing without having to see any of it.  “Better at following protocol than bending it, is’alll, sir, Kaidan offered with a shy grin.  “And this is the CIC.” Alenko began the tour without further ado.

The ship was small, but Alenko seemed to know everyone on it and everything in it, including the entirely unexpected Turian Spectre, Nihlus, who eyed Shepard as if he were sizing him up.  “The gossip mill seems to think he’s here as more than the Council’s Rep, but that’d be above my pay grade.” Alenko tilted his head as he explained after Turian had walked off, looking as if, Noah guessed, he thought the Turian seemed intense to him too.   Shaking off the encounter, Noah found himself asking questions he thought Alenko might not know the answers to, to see how far the Lieutenant’s knowledge went. He didn’t stump Alenko until they were in the elevator to the lower decks, when Shepard joked that Anderson could have just given the XO spot to Alenko, for he seemed to have a handle on things.  “It’s just… I guess.” Alenko lifted up his hands, then caught himself and put back down.  “This is a promotion for me, sir.  You climb the ladder, and the Alliance doesn’t skip the rungs.  Not trying to step on toes, just been aboard almost six weeks, heading up the ground team that, under you, is me and one green corporal, and no ground missions - gives an engineer time to plink around.”

“Engineer?” Shepard asked.  “That wasn’t mentioned in your file.”

“Yeah.” Kaidan grimaced, then schooling his expression.  “Alliance files tend to autocomplete once you click the ‘biotic’ box.  I know the tech skills show up under the Sentinel classification, but the degree from UBC gets shunted in favor of biotic proficiency marks.”

“UBC?” Shepard asked.

“University of British Columbia - Canada - Earth.” Kaidan replied.  “Heard you’re an engineer too.  Alliance training, or did you?”

“Arcturus U, actually.” Shepard supplied “I did the year-round high school thing, enrolled in the two year program at sixteen and enlisted at eighteen.  I didn’t think a biotic needed the extra sell for the Alliance.”

“I uh - wasn’t planning on it, originally.” The elevator door opened, and Kaidan broke off to continue the tour. “Like I said, engineering’s closed as the crew are all above deck - sealed up tight without a senior engineer present.  But I can introduce you to the aforementioned Corporal Jenkins, who is tending to the armory next to the crew lockers.”

Shepard nodded his assent, and followed his Lieutenant across the cargo bay, losing the rhythm of his step ever so slightly when he realizes that his first conversation with Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko, unlike anyone else he’d met since he gained his notoriety, had nothing to do with Elysium.

 


End file.
